Monkey Blood

As the two spoke, a young man walked into the mourning hall with a solemn expression.

He held a purple Soul Tool Longsword that looked exquisitely crafted.

"Manager, this sword belonged to Xiaoyu. I'd like to keep it as a memento."

The boy's name was Bai Xuesong. He was Xiaoyu's older brother.

Xiaoyu was dead, and even her corpse had been hacked to pieces, reduced to a heap of scraps. Ning Yu nodded. Ning Yu nodded and said, "Keep it."

Ji Feng looked at the purple Soul Tool Longsword. The aura it gave off clearly marked it as a Class 5 soul tool.

Most of the people in the soul tool shop were Soul Ancestors. The fact that this young woman had possessed a Class 5 soul tool showed just how highly Ning Yu had valued her.

Ji Feng's Spatial Perception activated on its own. He detected a peculiar scent of blood on the Soul Tool Longsword, a sensation that felt very familiar.

"Let me see that sword."

Bai Xuesong handed the sword to Ji Feng, who concentrated his spiritual power and probed inside it.

He had not been mistaken. There really was something unusual about the blood on this sword.

Ji Feng looked at the sword and said, "This probably isn't human blood. If I'm not mistaken, it's monkey blood."

Monkey blood?

Ning Yu froze. Bai Xuesong began swearing at Ji Feng. "Who the fuck do you think you are? What gives you the right to call my sister a monkey?!"

Ji Feng looked at the boy without offering any explanation.

What was the point of explaining anything to an idiot? It would only waste his breath.

Wang Yu had someone take Bai Xuesong away, then picked up the Soul Tool Longsword himself and examined it carefully.

There was indeed a scent of blood, but he could not tell whether it was monkey blood or human blood. Didn't the two smell exactly the same?

Ji Feng said to Ning Yu, "Call everyone who took part in the fight over here and have them bring out the soul tool weapons they used. We'll examine them carefully, one at a time."

A little while later, the shop employees brought over more than a dozen soul tool weapons. Ji Feng examined them one by one with Spatial Perception and confirmed his judgment.

There was no mistake. All the blood on them was monkey blood, not human blood.

Ning Yu refused to believe it and argued, "How is that possible? Is monkey blood really so different from human blood? They were all people! Where would monkeys have come from? How the fuck could monkey blood have gotten on these weapons?"

Ji Feng picked a longsword out from among the weapons. A crust of dried blood had formed around its guard. He removed it, broke off a little piece, and rubbed it carefully between his fingers. "Look for yourself. This really is monkey blood. Dried human blood wouldn't be this fine."

Ning Yu studied it for a moment, her pupils steadily contracting.

This time, she saw it. Something really was wrong with this blood. Even if it was not monkey blood, it could not be human blood.

Ji Feng found quite a few more crusts of dried blood on the other soul tool weapons.

"Manager Ning, I really wasn't wrong. I don't know what you spent all day hacking at, but they definitely weren't people. Humans don't have blood like this. This is monkey blood."

Ning Yu carefully recalled yesterday's fierce battle. Throughout the fighting, she had continually supported her employees with Seven Treasure Glazed Tile Radiance, at least doubling their fighting strength.

Yet no matter what soul skills they used, whether ranged or close-combat, the people from the Xiang Family Pill Shop had not suffered so much as a scratch, let alone fallen and lost the ability to fight.

Could they really have been people made from monkey blood?

Could all the blood they shed have been monkey blood?

Did they only need more monkey blood to restore their stamina and heal their injuries?

Why could monkey blood take human form and even fight?

He Jingquan, the oldest warehouse keeper in the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect's soul tool shop, took a sip of Shaodaozi and offered his guess. "Making puppets out of blood to fight... I'm afraid we've run into someone from the Body Sect."

The Body Sect?

Of course Ji Feng remembered that sect.

Back then, the Body Sect's master, Du Busi, had slaughtered indiscriminately in the Star Dou Great Forest, upsetting its ecological balance and enraging Di Tian, the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King, which had led to the first beast tide.

Moreover, the man was notorious for fiercely protecting his own. If someone from the Body Sect really was behind this, the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect was in serious danger this time.

"Why the Body Sect?" Ji Feng asked directly.

The old warehouse keeper sighed and said, "The Body Sect pays very close attention to people with body martial souls. Almost everyone who has awakened a body martial soul and can cultivate has already joined the Body Sect.

"The soul master who produced this monkey blood and used it to make puppets most likely has blood as his martial soul. We can pretty much be certain he's from the Body Sect."

Ning Yu considered this for a while, then slowly shook her head. "What does the Xiang Family amount to? Could they afford to hire someone from the Body Sect?

"People from the Body Sect have always kept to themselves, and they don't stir without something to gain. Why would they help the Xiang Family deal with our Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect? Their ambitions are far greater than that. They wouldn't take orders from the Xiang Family.

"Besides, I've never heard of anyone in Shrek City whose martial soul is blood."

The old-the old warehouse keeper took another sip of Shaodaozi. "Manager, he wouldn't have to act personally to deal with our Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect this time. He'd just be taking money for a job and supplying a few blood puppets.

"And Shrek City has plenty of soul land. Who knows? They might want to acquire a patch to help with their cultivation."

What was soul land? Ji Feng had heard another new term that had never appeared in the original story.

He did not interrupt, not wanting to disrupt the Nine Treasures Glazed Tile Sect members' train of thought, but their thoughts had already ground to a halt.

Someone from the Body Sect was an opponent Ning Yu did not dare face.

She was the only Soul King in the entire soul tool shop, and she was a support-type soul master at that. Compared with the Body Sect's experts, she fell far short.

Body martial souls could undergo a second awakening, granting combat strength that absolutely surpassed others of the same rank. If his martial soul really was blood, something so intimately connected to the human body, then his second awakening might well have reached the level of a silver awakening, or even higher.

Ning Yu would be at an even greater disadvantage in a fight. No one knew how to handle an expert like that.

Ning Yu turned her gaze toward Ji Feng.

Everyone looked at Ji Feng.

Ji Feng said, "What are you looking at me for? I'm not confident I can beat someone from the Body Sect either."

The old warehouse keeper sighed and said, "None of us are, unless Shrek steps in personally.

"But I think they've run into some trouble lately too. Most of the inner court disciples who were out on missions have returned to Shrek. Who knows what's happened inside Shrek Academy?

"Master, if you don't act, all we can do is huddle together and die."

Hearing the old warehouse keeper's words, Ji Feng understood that Shrek might be gathering its forces to move against him. He had to find a way to reach the Sun Moon Empire as soon as possible.

After hearing the warehouse keeper's words, everyone continued looking at Ji Feng.

Their eyes shone with earnest hope.

Ji Feng had been able to solve the problem with Tang Ya's meridians, which already placed him at the level of a mysterious expert in their eyes.

This time, he had immediately discovered the crucial clue of the monkey blood. If he acted, he would surely be able to deal with the Xiang Family Pill Shop.

Ji Feng pursed his lips. As someone who had grown up in China, he knew what to do when faced with a powerful enemy he could not defeat.

"There's a saying where I come from: fight if you can win, run if you can't. Staying alive is what matters most. Apart from Inkstone Village, do you have anywhere else you can go?"

Han the Venerable's advanced core philosophy had long since been carved into Ji Feng's soul, and he had benefited immensely from it.